Sign having movable letters



Nov. 17, 1959 c. RADCLIFFE SIGN HAVING MOVABLE LETTERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1Filed Nov. 9, 1956 INVENTOR.

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Nov. 17; 1959 c. RADCLIFFE 2,912,777

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United States Patent 2,912,777 SIGN HAVING MOVABLE LETTERS CharlieRadclifie, Campbell, Ohio Application November 9, H56, Serial No.621,342 1 Claim. (Cl. 40-140 This invention relates to signs, and moreparticularly has reference to a sign so designed as to include aplurality of grooves or slots undercut to receive complementarily formedletters, with the letters being normally maintained in a storage rackfrom which they can be slidably adjusted into the slots on which thelegend carrier by the sign is to be displayed;

The main object of the present invention is to provide a generallyimproved sign, capable of manufacture in any of various shapes, andusable both as an inside and outside sign, which sign will be sodesigned as to facilitate the selective employment of stored letters orother indicia to form the desired legend that it to be displayed uponthe sign.

Another object of importance is to provide a sign of the characterdescribed composed of a plurality of laminations, which were superposedand fixedly secured together will define a baseboard, an intermediatelamination having a plurality of grooves defining slideways for theletters, and a top or outer lamination having slots aligned with thegrooves'or slots of the intermediate lamination but formed to a narrowerwidth than the slots of the intermediate lamination, thus to cause theslideways to be undercutfor the purpose of receiving the letters orother indicia.

Another object of importance is to provide a sign as stated so designedthat a storage rack will be disposed in side-by-side relationwithdheportion of the sign on which the legend is to be displayed, with saidstorage rack being concealed from view, normally, by a door orequivalent means.

Another important object of the present invention is to provide a signthat will be capable of manufacture at low cost, will'be particularlyrugged and durable, and will'be adapted to permit'the swift and easyformation of any of various legends or other advertising materialthereon, with the sign being adapted to'permit changing of the'legendwith equal speed'and ease.

Other objects will appear'from the following descriptions, the claimappended th'ereto,fand from the annexed'drawing in which'like referencecharacters designate like parts throughout the several views, andwherein:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a sign constructed according tothe present invention, ingwhich a portion of the storage rack closurehas been broken away;

Figure 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary perspective View of the sign;

Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view substantially on line 3-3 ofFigure 2;

Figure 4 is a horizontal section substantially on line 4-4 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view of the sign with theletters removed; and

Figure 6 is a perspective view of one of the indicia.

Referring to the drawing in detail, designated generally at 10 is a signaccording to the present invention.

in any suitable manner, and as one example of a support for the sign,there is shown an upstanding post 12 having at its upper end a laterallyprojecting extension or support arm 14 braced as at 16, and having atits outer end a depending eye 18 receiving an eye- 19 that projectsupwardly from the upper end of the sign 10.

The sign may be appropriately considered as including a body portiongenerally designated at 20, said body portion being of flat, laminatedformation. The.lamina-.

tions will be described in greater detail hereinafter, but at thispoint, it is suflicient to note frorn Figure 1 that the body portion20,'-in the illustrated example of the invention, includes a large,rectangular lower part integral atits upper end with an upper part inthe shape of a low isosceles triangle, In the triangular part of thebody portion, there is'formed in the illustrated example, but notnecessarily, a plurality of horizontally extending, undercut slots 22,24, 26, respectively, closed at one end and opening at their other endsuponone side of the triangular part. I

Disposed within the slots are removable indicia generally designated 28;The particular construction of each indicium has been shown to bestadvantage in Figures 2 and 6, and as will be noted, each includes arectangular base 30 integral with a'forwarding projecting short stem ofcircular cross section-which isintegral or otherwise made rigid at itsouter end with a character 34, which may be a letter,number,symbohpunctuation mark, or the like.

In the slots 22,-24, 26,- thefindicia are more or less permanentlyretained.'-' For example, the slots can carry legends showing the-nameof the establishment, as illustrated in Figure 1. Obviously, in thisinstance the indicia would remain permanently placed, and'ordinarilywould not be removed from the slots. The indicia movable into and out ofthe slots 22, 24, 26 accordingly may be larger than the indicia thatwill be used in the lower portion ofthe sign. However, they will beof'identical formation, that is, whether'the indicia are of larger orsmaller size they will all be constructed as shown in Figures 2 and 6.,t

Considering now the particular construction of the body portion 20,reference should be had to Figures 2-5. As will "benoted from Figure 5,the body portion includes three superposed laminations. This is alsoshown in Figures 2-4, in which figures of the drawing'the laminationsare shown connected together.

The body portion 20 includes a flat back or baseboard 36, which isimperforate over its, entire area. Cemented or otherwise fixedly securedto the front surface of the baseboard is an intermediate plate/37,having a plurality of parallel,-wide slots 38. Cemented to the face ofthe intermediateplate' or lamination-37 is a cover plate or lamination39, having a plurality of slots 40 registering with the" slots 38butformed to a width substantially smaller than that of the slots 38. Asa result, and as shown in Figures 2 and 3, undercut, forwardly openinggrooves are defined on the body portion, in which the indicia 28 slide.

The arrangement of the undercut grooves can vary, in different signs,the arrangement shown in Figure 1 being merely one of many'that can beemployed.

In the illustrated example the undercut grooves are arranged in therectangular part of the sign, to define at one side of the midwidthpoint of the sign a plurality of guideways 52, which terminate at saidmidwidth point of -the sign in communication with a vertically extendingmain guideway 53. At their other ends, guideways 52 are closed,terminating adjacent one side edge of the sign.

In the guideways 52 various legends can be assembled, as for examplerestaurant menus, a list of used cars with their prices, etc. Thisportion of the sign is continuously exposed as shown in Figure 1.

The main guideway 53, at uniformly spaced locations along its length, isin communication with laterally extending branch guideways 54, andextending from the guideways 54 in a vertical direction are closelyspaced storage guideways 55.

The guideways 54, 55 cooperate to define a storage rack for indicia 28that are not in use. As shown in Figure 1, each of the verticallyextending guideways communicates at its upper end with an associatedbranch guideway 54, with the lower end of the vertical guideway beingclosed and terminating in closely spaced relation to the next lowerhorizontal guideway 54.

Each of the guideways 55 is adapted for storage of a particularindicium. For example, in one guideway 55 all the letters A are stored,in the next guideway 55 all the letters B are stored, and so on throughthe entire storage rack. There will be sufficient guideways 55 to permitstorage of all letters, and all numbers, punctuation marks, symbols,etc., that might be used in the exposed portion of the sign.

The storage rack is concealed from view by a door 62 hinged at 64 on theinner side edge of the rectangular part of the sign. A handle 66 isprovided upon the door, and suitable latch means, etc., can also beprovided for the door.

It is a characteristic of the storage rack that any letter can bereached without interference from other stored letters. For example, onedesiring the letter S would obtain the same from the vertical guideway55 in which this particular letter is stored. The uppermost storedletter S will then be moved upwardly, will be slid to the left in Figure1 within the associated branch guideway 54, and will then be moved alongthe main guideway 53 to the guideway 52 in which the letter S is beingassembled with other letters to provide a suitable legend.

In this way, the desired advertising material can be swiftly assembledand it is obvious that the advertising material can be disassembled withequal speed and ease.

It will be noted that the bases 30 of the several indicia may be roundedat their corners or otherwise formed to facilitate their movement intoand out of the various guideways, and to facilitate their passage aroundcorners occurring in the network of guideways.

It may also be noted that the construction is one that permits signs tobe provided at opposite sides of the baseboard 36. In other words, thebaseboard 36 may constitute an intermediate lamination in a group offive laminations. Secured to opposite faces of the baseboard 36 would bethe plates 37, and secured to the outer faces of the two plates 37 thatwould be employed in this instance would be face plates 39.

It is believed apparent that the invention is not necessarily confinedto the specific use or uses thereof described above, since it may beutilized for any purpose to which it may be suited. Nor is the inventionto be necessarily 4, limited to the specific construction illustratedand described, since such construction is only intended to beillustrative of the principles of operation and the means presentlydevised to carry out said principles, it being considered that theinvention comprehends any minor change in construction that may bepermitted within the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A sign comprising a vertically extending, flat, laminated body portioncomposed in its entirety of three superposed plates including a flatbaseboard imperforate over its entire area, an intermediate platefixedly secured to the baseboard in face-to-face contact therewith andhaving a plurality of wide slots, and a single cover plate secured tothe intermediate plate in face-to-face contact therewith and having aplurality of slots narrower than and registered with the first namedslots so as to cooperate therewith in defining undercut, forwardlyopening grooves in the body portion, said grooves including a verticallyextending main guideway one end of which opens on the lower end of thebody portion and the other end of which terminates short of the upperend of the body portion, a plurality of display guideways all of whichextend perpendicularly to and laterally in one direction from the mainguideway, said display guideways terminating short of one side of thebody portion, the upper and lower ends of the main guideway extending ashort distance above and below, respectively, the uppermost andlowermost display guideways, a plurality of branch guideways extendingperpendicularly to the main guideway laterally in the opposite directiontherefrom toward the opposite side of the body portion, and a pluralityof vertical storage guideways extending downwardly from each branchguideway, the storage guideways that extend downwardly from each branchguideway being closed at their lower ends and terminating at said lowerends short of and close to the next lower storage guideway; a pluralityof indicia each of which includes a rectangular base sliding in thefirst named slots with its opposite sides in contact with the respectiveside walls of the first named slots, a narrow stem sliding in the secondnamed slots, and a character on the stem overlying the cover plate, likeindica all being stored in the same storage guideway; and a door hingedat one side to said opposite side of the body portion and proportionedwhen swung to a closed position to completely cover all the storageguideways.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 6,407Allen May 1, 1849 205,151 Tatham June 18, 1878 207,319 Tatham Aug. 20,1878 296,900 Wheeler Apr. 15, 1884 336,266 Smith Feb. 16, 1886 371,338Matson Oct. 11, 1887 454,729 Gillis June 23, 1891 533,915 Petry Feb. 12,1895 791,903 Hawkins June 6, 1905 FOREIGN PATENTS 97,552 SwitzerlandJan. 16, 1923

